


Demons Play Card Games (and Make Excellent Study Partners)

by Akira_of_the_Twilight



Series: My Roommate is a Demon (and There is Going to be Trouble) [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Demon Tony Stark, Drabble, Established- James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barnes/Steve Rogers, M/M, OT4, Polyamory, Pre- StarkSpangledWinterHawk, Pre-OT4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-15
Updated: 2016-02-15
Packaged: 2018-05-20 09:36:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6001105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akira_of_the_Twilight/pseuds/Akira_of_the_Twilight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Five minutes,” Clint hissed between clenched teeth. “I just want five minutes to myself, god damn it.” He threaded his fingers through his hair as he reread the passage in his textbook for the fifth time. He’d been studying at the college library for two hours and his brain felt like mush.</p><p>Tony frowned. “I spent the last hour watching anime on your Xbox. Why are you yelling at me like I’ve been stalking you all day?”</p><p>“Because that is what you do.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Demons Play Card Games (and Make Excellent Study Partners)

Living with Anthony—or Tony as he preferred to be called—was oddly easier than anyone had expected. There had been a few annoying adjustments, such as maneuvering furniture around in the bedroom so Steve, Bucky, and Clint could fit a twin bed against one of the walls, and the hour spent one afternoon adding hooks to the ceiling so they could string a sheet between Tony’s section of the bedroom and theirs, but that was all minor in the long run. No, the real adjustments were things like getting used to Tony’s hour-long bathroom occupation in the morning. Not only did his occupation prevent everyone else from using the bathroom for that time, Tony also always left the room blanketed in clouds of steam that resulted in damp towels for everyone. He also would spend the morning walking around in nothing but a bathrobe and drink five cups of coffee minimum and in mugs twice the size of a standard sized cup.

Fortunately, Tony volunteered to pay the utilities bill every month and be in charge of purchasing and making coffee for his roommates to make up for his high consumption rate. Tony did other things too, such as leave the toothpaste uncapped and borrow Bucky’s hair brush without asking, but overall Steve, Clint, and Bucky agreed that he was one of their better roommates. He cleaned up after himself, was quiet at night, and helped out with the chores.

Plus, Tony knew how to make one dollar ramen taste gourmet.

Granted, all of that was not helping him with Clint right now.

“Five minutes,” Clint hissed between clenched teeth. “I just want five minutes to myself, god damn it.” He threaded his fingers through his hair as he reread the passage in his textbook for the fifth time. He’d been studying at the college library for two hours and his brain felt like mush.

Tony frowned. “I spent the last hour watching anime on your Xbox. Why are you yelling at me like I’ve been stalking you all day?”

“Because that is what you do,” Clint said.

“No. I stay nearby because the magic that summoned me forces me to, and as I just said: I haven’t been near you for an hour.” Tony grabbed the back of the chair and plopped himself down next to Clint. “Now, unless you want me to reappear five minutes from now because of said magic, I’m going to stick around for a little while.”

Clint cursed but didn’t object. Instead, he reread the damn passage for the sixth time and didn’t absorb anything from it.

Clint groaned and slammed his head on the desk.

“What are you studying?”

“History,” Clint grumbled into his book.

“Is this for your role playing group?”

“I wish. No, this is for my AA.”

“AA?”

Clint sighed and pushed his face off his textbook. “Associates Degree.”

“I know what an AA is; I don’t know why you want one. Don’t you teach archery to impoverished youths or something?”

“I lecture and demonstrate weapons used throughout various eras in history at the Historical Center downtown, and yes, that does include archery lessons for kids.”

“So then why would you need a degree now?”

Clint huffed. He ripped a piece of paper out of his notebook and crumpled it up to relieve some of his stress. “Because the board decided to reevaluate the jobs at the center and thus set up new requirements for them. I have one year to complete my degree or I lose my job. Lucky for me, when I got out of high school I at least took my math and science classes in college so I am not in utter hell, but I am hell adjacent.”

“Oh no, Hell adjacent is Purgatory, and Purgatory is far more bleak and boring than this. Also, Hell holds a lot more sadists and masochists, so I wouldn’t compare it to the headache that is bureaucracy.” Tony shook his head and smiled fondly. “Although, I do admire humans for creating bureaucracy; it combines the physical agony of Hell with the mental tediousness of Purgatory.”

“Right…” Clint said. Sometimes he forgot that Tony was a demon and would know quite a bit about Hell.

Tony whipped out his cell phone and tapped the screen. “By the way, you have to see this adorable cat video.”

Clint sighed in aggravation. “Not now, Tony.” He reached for his textbook.

Tony shoved Clint’s textbook away and pushed his cell phone under Clint’s nose. “Come on, Legolas; it’s just two minutes of your time.”

There was a marmalade cat on the screen giving a bath to a puppy.

Clint’s heart melted. “Just two minutes.”

Two minutes turned into five, and five into ten, and ten into twenty, and just as Clint was about to click on another video to watch, Tony yanked the phone out of Clint's hand and pocketed it. “Okay, break time is over.” He pulled his hand out of his pocket and held up a deck of cards. “You play Magic the Gathering?”

Clint blinked in surprise. “Pokemon.”

Tony raised a questioning eyebrow and waved his hand over the deck. The brown cards were replaced with blue ones. “A little nineteen-nineties to early two-thousands but I can work with this.” Tony slid the deck of cards to Clint then summoned a second deck.

Tony shuffled his cards, dealt out his prizes and his hand. “All right, the rules are simple: you get a question wrong that’s twenty points less damage dealt to me. You get a question right, the amount of damage is unaffected. Since I’m not the one who needs to study, there will be no questions for me, and I will not be affected at all.”

Tony placed his selected cards face down.

Clint gaped at him.

Tony gestured for Clint to do something. “You going to play or what?”

Clint snapped his mouth shut. “Are you trying to help me study?”

“That’s what I thought I was doing.” Tony reached across the table and grabbed Clint’s study sheet. He skimmed it. “I already have my next ten questions lined up. So shuffle your deck and let’s get to studying.”

Clint picked up the deck and thumbed through the cards. He frowned, seeing the strategy behind the deck Tony had crafted for him, but preferring the cards he was used to playing with. He considered asking Tony to summon his deck from home, but he didn’t want to risk Tony offering him a Faustian deal, so Clint shuffled the deck and dealt out his cards.

He spent three hours playing Pokemon and getting quizzed by Tony.

Clint was shocked by just how much information he’d already absorbed through his reading, and whenever he’d missed a question, Tony would always ask it again ten minutes later until Clint had memorized the answer. By the end of his study session Clint felt more confident than ever.  

“Thanks,” Clint said as Tony scooped up his cards from their last game.

Tony paused then shrugged and continued to gather his cards. “It’s just studying. I’ve done far more difficult and wasteful things with my time.”

“Got any tips for writing an essay?”

“Depends what kind.” Tony grinned. “I provide essay outlining services for the price of one carton of my favorite ice cream, plus, one five-minute back massage.”

Clint snorted in amusement. “That’s a pretty steep price for just an outline.”

“My outline’s are very detailed.” Tony snapped his fingers and three sheets of paper covered in print appeared before Clint. “Take a look.”

Clint skimmed the pages, his eyes growing double in size as he read through the paragraphs of research and annotated citations. All Clint would have to do is organize and clean up some of the rougher aspects of the research and notes.

Clint put down the papers. “So do you want that back massage now?”

Tony chuckled.


End file.
